Ahead of COP16, groups warn of rights abuses linked to ‘30×30’ goal
Two years since global policymakers agreed on the concept of protecting 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030, there’s still little clarity on how achieving this goal will…
Conflict News
Report exposes meatpackers’ role in recent chemical deforestation in Brazil
A new report links Brazil's top meatpackers — JBS, Marfrig and Minerva — to widespread deforestation across the Pantanal, Amazon and Cerrado; of five farms investigated between October 2023 and February 2024, 86% of the destruction occurred in the Pantanal.
How the Brazilian military sabotaged protection of Indigenous people in the Amazon
Reports show it failed (or sabotaged) airspace control and food deliveries to the Indigenous people, who suffer from malnutrition as a result of mercury contamination from illegal mining.
Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon
Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found…
Extreme drought pushes Amazon’s main rivers to lowest-ever levels
Experts say the outlook for the next months is even worse, putting researchers on alert for the possibility of Amazon’s worst drought ever.
Resilient and resourceful, Brazil’s illegal gold capital resists government crackdown
Following regulatory changes and heavier enforcement of the gold trade, the Amazonian municipality of Itaituba, notorious as Brazil’s illegal gold capital, is struggling to deal with the new restrictions.
Drought forces Amazon Indigenous communities to drink mercury-tainted water
River levels in parts of the Brazilian Amazon are even lower than in 2023, when the region experienced its worst drought.
‘Stop the stupidity’: Indonesia’s top court orders end to mine in quake zone
JAKARTA — A controversial zinc-and-lead mine being developed on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has hit a roadblock after the country’s Supreme Court ordered the revocation of its environmental permit.…
Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
The Forest Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of a controversial logging company in the Peruvian Amazon accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group…
In Vietnam, environmental defense is increasingly a crime
Until recently, the Hanoi-based nonprofit where Hưng works as a legal advocate distributed its research online, freely circulating information it intended to support policies on climate change and other environment…
Nearly all Brazilian gold imported by EU is likely illegal, report says
That amounts to 1.5 metric tons of the precious metal in 2023, sourced from wildcat mines known as garimpos, which have a long history of illegality and opaqueness.
Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
Exactly six months ago, the Rubymar bulk carrier became the first ship sunk in a series of attacks by the Houthis protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 2023. On…
As in India, tigers in Nepal may seek refuge in sugarcane fields
KATHMANDU — On the morning of Aug. 1 in Dodhara-Chandani, a town on the banks of Mahakali, which serves as the western border between Nepal and India, a 23-year-old woman…
Brazil launches ‘war’ on widespread fire outbreaks & criminal arsonists
Fire outbreaks are setting records all over Brazil, with flames burning the Amazon, the Cerrado, the Pantanal and the São Paulo state.
Study shows most Amazon beef & soy demand comes from Brazil — not exports
The article, published in Nature Sustainability, concluded that the domestic market answered for three times more deforestation than international sales.
Nepal’s buffalo-kills-tiger story reveals deeper pains in compensation system
KATHMANDU — Yes, you read the headline right: On Aug. 22, in a rare incident, a tethered domestic buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) killed an endangered Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) on…
One year after oil referendum, what’s next for Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park?
One year since Ecuador citizens voted on Aug. 20, 2023, to halt all future oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, the government is nowhere near close to meeting its deadline.…
Acre’s communities face drinking water shortage amid Amazon drought
Acre's population experienced a flood at the start of 2024 and is now suffering from water shortages due to the severe drought.
Deal ends environmental agents’ strike in Brazil, but grievances fester
Brazilian environmental agents and the federal government have agreed a deal to end a months-long strike by the civil servants.
Community consultations must also include women — not just men (commentary)
In all my travels — through coastal mangroves, tropical forests and savannas — northern Tanzania, home of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, stood out as a place of immense natural beauty…
Amazon Fraud 101: How timber credits mask illegal logging in Brazil
Sustainable forest management plans in the Brazilian Amazon are intended to ensure compliance with strict environmental rules, but many are used fraudulently as cover for illegal logging, according to new research.
Hydropower plants disrupt fishers’ lives in Amazon’s most biodiverse river basin
In Middle Madeira, fishing became more costly and demanding, with fishers needing to spend more days and travel farther to spots to maintain decent productivity, which led many riverines to illegal activities.
Advocacy group links Uganda oil infrastructure to human-elephant conflict
Oil drilling by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies is disturbing wildlife in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest and most-visited protected area. This is according to a briefing by…
In Sonora, communities fight mining to defend their water
Protesters in the northwest Mexican state of Sonora are blocking the country’s largest mining company, Grupo México, from withdrawing water, in an ongoing standoff against the company and state police.…
Gold mining in the Amazon has doubled in area since 2018, AI tool shows
Mines are widespread in the biome, affecting especially Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, and Peru, following a sharp increase in the price of the metal, which nearly doubled since 2018.
To host 2025 climate summit, Brazil will carve up an Amazonian reserve
The construction is part of a series of projects to upgrade infrastructure in Belém ahead of the COP30 climate summit next year, alongside dredging Guajará Bay to make space for ocean liners to address the shortage of hotel rooms in the city.
Report reveals widespread use of smuggled mercury in Amazon gold mining
According to a report from Brazilian think tank the Escolhas Institute, up to 73% of all mercury used in Brazil's gold mines is of unknown origin; the country’s environmental agency states practically all mines in Brazil use illegal mercury.
A year after toxic tar sands spill, questions remain for affected First Nation
Living downstream from one of the world’s largest industrial projects isn't easy — especially when things go wrong. When the community of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta, Canada, learned there had…
After historic 2023 drought, Amazon communities brace for more in Brazil
In the Brazilian Amazon, low river levels and insufficient rain might lead to 2024’s dry season being worse than 2023’s historic drought.
Allegations widen against Indonesian palm oil giant Astra Agro Lestari
JAKARTA — Allegations of illegal activity and land-grabbing against Indonesia’s second-largest palm oil company continue to mount as a new report reveals the firm’s violations appear to be more extensive…
Brazil’s new pro-agribusiness pesticide law threatens Amazon biodiversity
The bill went into effect as the use of pesticides banned long ago in the European Union exploded in the Brazilian Amazon.
The Wixárika community’s thirteen-year legal battle to stop mining in their sacred territory
Along the journey of every pilgrimage, the road to Wirikuta brims with offerings: lit candles, arrows, and jícaras (bowls made from the hardened skin of the jícara, or calabash gourd).…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
- $35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
- Arctic melt ponds influence sea ice extent each summer — but how much?
Amazon Conservation
- Extreme drought pushes Amazon’s main rivers to lowest-ever levels
- Drought forces Amazon Indigenous communities to drink mercury-tainted water
- Acre’s communities face drinking water shortage amid Amazon drought
- Deal ends environmental agents’ strike in Brazil, but grievances fester
Land rights and extractives
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
